Philosopher

David Hume

David Hume

DAVID HUME

(1711-1776) 

Introduction

Some of the philosophies of  David Hume are the: Empiricism, Skepticism, and the Naturalism. He is famous or well-known because of his book entitled “A Treatise of Human Nature”. As a title of his work it proclaims that Hume's subject is about Human Nature. “An attempt to introduce the experimental method into moral subjects”, is the summarize subtitle of his project. This book of him, contains his philosophies. According to Wikipedia, Empiricism is a theory that states that knowledge comes only from sensory experience. Their are 3 types of Empiricism the Classical, Radical, and Moderate Empiricism.  The Wikipedia also defines that Skepticism, is any doubt or questioning attitude towards on one or more items of belief. While according to vocabulary.com, Naturalism is the belief that nothing exists beyond the natural world. Now let’s take a look on how David Hume defines or understand those theories or philosophies.

Biography

Let’s first have a background on our philosopher. David Hume was born in Edinburg on May 7, 1711 NS (New Style) or on April 26, 1711 OS (Old Style). He died at the age of 65 on August 25, 1776. He is a Scottish , philosopher, historian, economist and essayist, who is best known today for his highly influential system of philosophical Empiricism, Skepticism, and Naturalism. He tried to describe how the mind works in acquiring what is called knowledge. For him, there can be no knowledge of anything beyond experience so that he concluded that no theory of reality is possible. Despite the enduring impact of his theory of knowledge. He seems to have considered himself chiefly as a moralist.  He is also considered as one of the most important philosophers to write in English.

Philosophy

One of his philosophy/s, is the Empiricism. David Hume is an Empiricist. He believes knowledge comes from experience.  He is an extraordinarily independent and original thinker and ahead of his time. He also believes that we must ignore those knowledge which is not gained through experience is because it is said to be false. Humans cannot know anything for certain except that which we prove empirically. Jeremy Harwood explains Hume insists that we cannot claim the existence of any “thing” unless we can provide evidence for that existence through observational experience. Example is with the existence of God, there is no observational experience then the thing cannot be proved to exist unless there would be an observational experience. He’s empiricist approach to philosophy turns him as a British Empiricist and also places him with John Locke, Francis Bacon, and Thomas Hobbes. He’s second philosophy is, Skepticism. They are two types of skeptic. First is the, moderate sceptics, they know more than the vulgar and those caught up in false philosophy. Next is the, fanatical skeptics, they don’t struggle with attempting to avoid having beliefs that go beyond the evidence or reasons. They admit that most of what they believe goes beyond what they can reliably know or even understand. Hume’s belief in skepticism has two parts: The first part is, he held that curiosity drives us to ask questions about our vulgar opinions and this is one of those drives that is an unexplained part of human nature. Second part is, he believed that there are two alternative outlets for our curiosity. One is the alternative outlets that involves superstition, and the other is philosophy. Philosophy is preferred because it is less dangerous. Third philosophy is, Naturalism. He wants to show that certain general “principles of the imagination” can explain how human beings come to think, feel, believe, and act in all the ways they do independently of the truth or reasonableness of those responses so that he takes his “naturalistic” study of human nature. This appears to leave the reflective philosopher with no reason for assenting to what he has discovered he cannot help believing anyway. Relief from this unacceptably extreme skepticism is found in acknowledging and acquiescing in those forces of “nature” that inevitably overcome the apparent dictates of “reason” and return the philosopher to the responses and beliefs of everyday life. For him, mitigated skepticism means living in full recognition of these forces and limitations and it is what he accepts.

Conclusion/Summary/Application/Analysis

For Hume’s Empiricism, he said that something cannot be told to be true unless there would be an observational experience. Example, someone told you that he likes you, but you don’t see that he really is. Then the thing that he stated may be false. It is connected to the saying that “Action speaks louder than words”, because it is not enough that you just speak or utter something, you should also prove it. For the existence of God, others say that HE is true even though they didn’t see HIM, because we have our own beliefs and perspective.

For Hume’s, Skepticism drives us to curiosity or to be curious about something. According to Merriam Webster, skepticism is an attitude of doubting the truth of something. Example, your teacher was sceptical, because you told her that your elms is not working properly so you didn’t finish the activity which is due yesterday, but you’re the only one in class who hasn’t finished yet. She is doubting if your excuse is true or not. But sometimes people are sceptical because they just don’t want to believe in spite of evidences that you have.

Naturalism, discusses about the existence of something without any supernatural significance. Example is the universe, it has either always existed or had a purely natural origin. And also an example is life, it is an unplanned product of blind natural processes and luck. It doesn’t have any supernatural ideas.

My understanding in Hume’s philosophy/s, is that they are connected with each other. You can’t believe on something which you can’t actually see (Empiricism), so that you’ll start doubting about it if it’s really true (Skepticism), then you’ll seek natural evidences about that without any supernatural significance, because sometimes supernatural’s are not really true (Naturalism). I conclude that most of Hume’s philosophy/s  is about the existence of something and also about knowing what’s true and what’s isn’t.

Lynneth Rain E.Meriño

STEM 111-1A